Subprime Crisis: Us Foreclosures Bring Homelessness to the Middle Class

Homeless people living in cars and mobile homes across the US are being joined by a new breed: the middle-class.

As mortgage foreclosures continue rising month on month, growing numbers of middle-class professionals are losing their homes and downsizing from four bedrooms to four wheels.

With numbers rising, New Beginnings, a homeless agency in Santa Barbara, California, has launched a Safe Parking Program, aiming to provide a refuge of sorts for those who have nowhere to go other than their vehicle.

Guy Trevor lost his job as an interior designer when the market contracted, thanks to the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

With his furniture sold and his belongings in storage, he now lives in his car, spending the nights in one of the 12 gated parking lots in Santa Barbara run by New Beginnings.

"I see myself as a casualty of a perfect storm," he said. "The people sleeping at the parking lot are very friendly. They're just like me - they come from normal, everyday homes. I think a lot of people in this country don't realize that they, too, are a couple of pay-checks away from destitution."

Mortgage foreclosures in the normally comfortable seaside area of Santa Barbara county are increasing month by month.

In May there were 150, with the total for the year to the end of last month reaching 800, according to figures from the county assessor's office.

Each month, an auction of foreclosed properties is held on the steps of the Santa Barbara courthouse.

"The way the economy is going, it's just amazing the people that are becoming homeless," Nancy Kapp, the program's coordinator, told CNN. "It's hit the middle class."

Another of Kapp's clients, Barbara Harvey, also lost her job and subsequently her home in the foreclosure crisis. Like Trevor, her job as a loans processor was connected to the housing market.

The 67-year-old lost her three-bedroom home and now lives with her three dogs in her car, parking at night in a women-only car park run by agency.

"It went to hell in a handbasket," she said. "I didn't think this would happen to me. It's just something that I don't think that people think is going to happen to them."

The rise in the numbers of homeless sleeping in cars has led Los Angeles city authorities to attempt to clamp down on the problem. As with many other cities, it is illegal in LA to live in vehicles on public streets.

Earlier this year the city forbade nearly all overnight parking on residential streets. A first violation receives a $50 fine, while subsequent offenses can carry fines up to $100.

"For more working-class and lower-middle-class people, the car is the first stop of being homeless, and sometimes it turns out to be a long stop," Gary Blasi, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor and homeless activist told the Associated Press.

Los Angeles has the highest number of homeless in the US, with an estimated 73,000 people living rough. Of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed last year, around 250 were sleeping in their cars.

"It's trending toward an increase," said Michael Stoop, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "People would rather live in a vehicle than wind up in a shelter, and you can't stay on a friend's couch forever."